Gap Summarr: Turtles, Rice, and Beans.
I thought it was time that I paid this blog a bit of attention. [Editors notes: This post is the accumulation of 6 weeks of activities - incredibly long, not for the faint hearted!]
For those of you who don't know I have spent the last 6 weeks in Central America. I have been told by the trip leader that I'm not allowed to call this 'expedition' a holiday - however by my definition a holiday is a period away from home (usually abroad) that is enjoyable. Granted I can't imagine that this definition is of Cambridge or Oxford standard, but I think it sounds about right and therefore, I think it's completely fair to say that I've had an amazing holiday.
The trip is a university ran trip. Every year Durham University Charity's Kommittee (Committee spelt with a K is obviously to create the acronym DUCK) run almost a dozen trips to countries all over the world on a voluntary capacity. This year there are trips to the likes of Columbia, Peru, Tanzania, Kilimanjaro and of course, Costa Rica. This is the first year that there's been a trip to this part of the World and unlike the expeditions to the aforementioned, we had very little information as to what we were actually doing. All I knew was that we were spending 4 weeks in very limited accommodation, volunteering with the conservation of sea turtles and then spending 9 days travelling through Costa Rica and Panama.
There were 11 of us in total, and all of us apart from 2 were very close to complete strangers. Despite all of us going to same University we all live in different colleges and locations and beforehand it's fair to say that there was a fair bit of worry as to whether it's possible to live with 10 other randomers for a prolonged period of time... Typing that sentence out it sounds very childish and relatively stupid - but I guess that's hindsight for you. The people I've met on this trip have been so like minded and genuinely amazing human beings. After a 3 hour layover in Atlanta between Heathrow and San Jose, it was clear that the group dynamic was really impressive and all sense of worry soon disappeared.
When we arrived in San Jose we had a couple of days of free time before we headed to the West Coast near a small town called Samara. I think it is fair to say that San Jose didn't set the World alight. Not in a negative way by any means and it was an interesting place to wonder around for a couple of days but having looked into what the rest of the country had to offer, I think it's fair to say that as a group we were far more excited for what was to come. Either way we had a pleasant few days getting to know each other and getting to know the local bars and a couple of games of Monopoly stick in the mind as an unbelievable group bonding activity. Our second day in San Jose saw a group of four of us head to a park that was thought to a 10 minute walk away from our hostel but turned out to be a solid hour or so. Either way the walk was worth it. We (mainly I) were attracted by the national football stadium located at the far side of this one time national airport (although you would never have known it's original purpose) and got so much more than we bargained for. On our arrival we found some sort of Pokemon tour - costumes and all it seemed that the tour guide would take their group around the park, showing them the best spots for certain kind of Pokemon. From there we found two very very low level football games where we may have pretended to be football scouts from England and we are adamant to this day that we were the cause of a couple of inspired performances. The park was also home to a rollerskating rink and a lake suitable for pedalo. We naturally obliged and had a great laugh rolling back the years on what was essentially a raft with seats on it.
San Jose was also the introduction of Fines Committee. This is something that I picked up from cricket tours over the years and something that I thought would be really good fun. Essentially there is a different chairman every week who is responsible for noting 'fine worthy' things from throughout the week. We then create a trial like setting where the prosecutor will describe these finable acts (usually acts of stupidity etc). A relatively tough process to describe but the whole occasion has actually been a really important part of our trip and therefore I think it's important to be in this blog and shouldn't be forgotten. Usually the punishment of fines is a cash payment depending on the severity of the fine - the money is then collected at the end and put towards the first round of drinks in the next bar. We however, are students and so we decided to skip the idea of paying and instead use the idea of forfeits as payments - these ranged massively from wearing women's clothing all day to having a turtle shaved into the back of someone's head - luckily I avoided both of these.
After our short time in San Jose we took a 5 hour bus to the town of Samara. The first impression of our accommodation was the feeling of 'what have we got ourselves into?' We arrived at a river and the first sign we see says 'WARNING: CROCODILES IN THE ESTUARY!' Cool. This river was about neck height and required all eleven of us to be carried forward and backwards in a single kayak. We get to the other side of the river and we are on a 2km stretch of beach, we briefly take it in before embarking on a humongous walk to our new home (it took 15 minutes but felt a lot more when carrying somebodies suitcase - yes, suitcase - for them). We then arrive at this accommodation which, to put it simply is a hut that was built 12 years ago by hand. It has no electricity, no walls and very basic facilities. There are also a list of rules on the board stating that there must be quiet after 19:30pm - this is the real worry... Where the hell are we??
Again, hindsight is a beautiful thing and it took just 15 minutes or so of reflection and taking in the beauty and sheer awesomeness of where we were. By lunchtime I was straight up excited about living away from normal society with a great group of people and the hut was just so impressive. The work was perfect for me. I had said to the guys beforehand that I would love the work to be easy - yet feels like you're making a difference, a fair bit of it - yet spread out throughout the day, and variety so we weren't doing the same things all the time. This is exactly what we got. Essentially, the project aided turtle conservation by patrolling the beach every night and finding nests that have been dug by turtles. If left alone, they have a huge risk of being eaten by raccoons, being stolen by poachers, or even being dug up by birds. Apparently the survival rate for turtle hatchlings left on their own is about 1 in a few thousand - it's not hard to see why extinction is such a threat. We would find this nests (always in the middle of the night) and dig a hole as similar to a turtles as we can on our camp (we had a grid structure in a secure enclosure of sand) before placing a net over the nest to catch the hatchlings as they make their way to the surface 45 days later. This means that every night 2 groups of 3 or 4 would patrol the beach for a couple of hours, as well as this the turtle hatchlings are monitored every 15 minutes 24 hours a day. We would be split into pairs and take 2 hours at a time performing these checks. If you have turtles then you place them in a bucket and carry them back to where they were found and watch them make their cute way back into the ocean. Other than that our work would include 2 hours of camp work in the morning between 6am and 8am (I know - up at 5:45 every day!) which more often than not meant digging up the holes of nests that had finished hatching and replacing the sand to make the process as natural as we possibly could. As well as this there would be certain days where would have an odd job every now and again, for example once a week we would have to pick up groceries from the river or clean the camp.
It's hard to say how much work we did per day because your workload depends on how many people are living on the project. When the eleven of us arrived there were already 12 other people staying on the project so we would only be required to do 1 hatchery shift (the checking of the turtles) per day and the 2 hours work in the morning. As these people left however, there was more and more work to do. There was one night where I had a shift between 12am and 2am as well as a 4am till 6am before doing the group work between 6am and 8am but this was by no means a common occurrence. I would say that in general, we would do about 4 hours work in the night and 4 hour work during the day - a good balance.
What this meant was that we had loads of free time during the day. I think it's a fair assumption that when you're spending 13 or 14 hours with the same group of people day in day out for 4 weeks with no electricity, it's going to be a challenge. Somehow that didn't happen. Whether it be copious amount of card games, going for a swim in the sea (a daily activity that somehow didn't get boring), playing ultimate frisbee, reading, making a new shelter for the camp (suitably named the DUCK hut where I really put to good use my 'supervisor' credentials) or just chatting - there always seemed to be something to do. As well as these activities we also had Thursday's and Sunday's free to go into town which if the tide was low wasn't a challenging experience because the river was now only knee height - otherwise it would take an hour or so to kayak everybody across and make the 45 minute walk into town, where we would find wifi and eat meat, something that was well and truly missed when you're having rice and beans 3 times a day!
As is always the case of travelling we met some amazing people. People came and went from all over the world ranging from America to Scotland to Germany to Spain and of course from Costa Rica so it was nice to be able to get the thoughts and views of those in other countries and generally just embrace other cultures.
In total, I personally was responsible for releasing 189 turtles and rehoused about 500 eggs into a safer environment. As a group I think we've released well over 1000 hatchlings and buried probably double that and together all but one of us managed to see an adult turtle lay it's eggs which was a sight to behold.
4 weeks really did just disappear in the blink of an eye. Whilst it felt like I'd been away from home for absolutely ages, the project itself seem to absolutely fly by which for me is a sign of having an amazing time. By the end of the project we had grown very close with those that ran the project and fellow volunteers so when it came to leaving there were a few tears and sad goodbyes but I couldn't help be excited to explore what more this beautiful country had to offer.
Days and dates really do seem mythical out here, especially when you're on project and days all just merge into one somehow. I believe we left Samara on Saturday - I'm pretty sure there was some football on! From there we had a very long travelling day which included the return trip to San Jose before a public bus to Puerto Viejo - we literally travelled from the Pacific coast to the Caribbean coast in a day. We arrived in the early evening, about 7 o'clock but our body clocks were telling us that 7pm was bed time - that was a relatively late night on project as we slept as the sun went down and woke up with it - however we battled through, checked into our hostel and battled it into town to explore the restaurants and bars that the town was known for and ended up on a beach with some local beer from the supermarket into the early hours of the morning - talk about the travellers life.
The hostel we were staying in was probably one of the favourites I've ever stayed. Called Rockin' J's it was capable of homing a fair few hundred people (as it apparently did during high party season - luckily we missed this!) despite the building not being particularly big. It's a hard place to describe but it was by far and away the most hippy place I've ever stayed. The rooms of 60 odd hammocks lined up next to each other (which was our bed for the next couple of nights) as well as indoor facilities for tents and some private rooms up some rickety stairs. Everywhere you look there was some form of hippy artwork whether it be tiles on the floor, the toilets, the walls - everywhere!
The second day here a few of us decided to hire some bikes and cycle down the road to explore some more beaches (we obviously hadn't had enough of these when we were living on one for 4 weeks) and even hired some snorkelling equipment for a couple of dollars. The beaches were very impressive and the bike ride was, thankfully, very even and easy to ride. Snorkelling was fun, despite only being able to find about a 5x5 metre bit of ocean that was actually swimmable and didn't have huge waves crashing around or coral that cut you everytime we went near it. A nice dinner out and a postponed night out because people were falling asleep at the dinner table followed and we were all fresh and ready to make our way into Panama.
Bocas Del Toro is located on an island very close to the Costa Rican boarder. It is also one of the first times that I've ever travelled directly south, only to find when I check my phone a couple of hours later that time has managed to go forward. This is because Panama is such an odd shape, and after looking at a map it's incredibly obvious that this makes sense, I just don't think I realised that Panama is a really long strip of land that goes from west to east, there isn't really a north or south. In order to get to our island (Colon Island) we needed to get a river taxi. Now, I've never got a river taxi before as best my memory serves, but to me, a river taxi sounds like a boat taking people and their belongings across a body of water... And I was right. What I wasn't expecting, was this boat to be so old school and rickety, yet have a 350 horsepower engine attached to the back of it that can only be likened to the in fashion speed boats that you see nowadays on the Thames! We must have been going about 40 knots in what seemed to be an old fishing boat which was a huge experience in itself!
We arrived in Bocas, made our way to our hostel and relaxed in yet more hammocks on the roof before heading out to find some dinner. This was a bit of strange dinner that may take a bit of explaining. The place was called 'The Kraken' and was located on stilts in the sea... As we were approaching it we saw water splashing quite violently onto the pavement and assumed that it was some kind of special effects to draw us in, we were wrong. We were also wrong to think that we would be able to read the menu outside in a safe and secure manner, instead we were splashed even more by the waves crashing against the restaurant and getting soaked in the process. None of this has yet put us off and we get inside to find that the whole place is pirate themed, chefs and waiters were dressed up with a skeleton sitting by the bar and a pirate ship wheel overlooking the ocean. The strangest decoration of the lot has to be the Tyrannosaurus Rex sitting in the corner for absolutely no valid reason and to top it all off there was a power cut just to make the whole evening better. Having reread this I've made the whole evening sound very disappointing, in reality it was the complete opposite and one of the favourite restaurants I've ever been in!
The day after this we went on what was labelled as a snorkelling tour, but I can assure you that that does not do it justice in the slightest. We got on another of these speed boats and started off by going to Dolphin Bay - you can probably guess what we saw here. We sat in the boat for half an hour where dozens of dolphins all over the place popped up for air all around us - they weren't the most playful dolphins I've ever seen but I always manage to forget how elegant these creatures are and it impresses me every time I see them. From there we headed to a marine park, formed mainly of an island (sounds strange I know). Think crystal clear water and perfectly coloured sand, not a bad place to be left for a couple of hours by any means! We were then picked up and taken for lunch (via a half an hour session of snorkelling) on a floating restaurant (I was savvy enough to bring a packed lunch which I was thankful for when I saw the prices) before passing by Sloth Island on the way home - once again no prizes for guessing what we saw and I'm really starting to question the people of Panama for their lack of imagination.
That night was probably my favourite night of the whole trip (since my openings paragraph I have now been retold off about calling it a holiday!) A really fun fines committee led to a unanimous decision to head out and just like that with some wine in us (I didn't think I would miss wine as much as I did!) we headed to a bar/hostel like none other I have been to before. The bar and seating were normal enough but at the back we found the sea - and what was basically a step leading into the sea with a trapeze floating from the ceiling. I can't quite believe that a bar is allowed to actively encourage its patrons to swim in the sea whilst intoxicated but I can confidently say that it was one of the best nights out I've ever been on. What started out to be dangling our legs in the sea with a beer or so and lovely conversation turned out to be diving and swimming into a lovely and refreshing Caribbean sea - something that I can't imagine replicating any time soon.
Our final day in Bocas saw yet another action packed day, this time in the form of zip lining. We were whisked away to another island, this time a private island by the name of Red Frog Island - It has genuinely just hit as to how unimaginative the people of Panama truly are!! (This island was home to Red Frogs!) We were suited up in some of the most high tech harnessing I've ever seen - nothing particularly special but it just seemed to be so much more harness than I've seen and I felt a lot safer for it - and transported to the zip line for a safety talk. On our way we saw my first ever big snake out in the wild whilst it crossed the road and whilst we had found a baby Boa Constrictor on project, this still manage to send fear into me, especially when the guide said that it wasn't too uncommon to find them on the zip lines themselves every now and again which would end in having two halves of a snake instead! The zip lining was great fun, there were 7 individual lines along with a Tarzan swing and a rope drop and other kinds of obstacles. The longest (and best) line had to be the one 150 feet in the air, 1000 feet long with speeds of almost 45 miles per hour - really good fun and the right amount of adrenaline. The rest of the night was spent trying to stay awake as to not ruin our recently recovered sleeping patterns and so it was a swift stop at a local sports bar (obviously) before an early night.
The following day was a nice and easy travel day to the adventure town of Boquete. Our sole reason to head here was because of its label of being one of the best white water rafting rivers in the world. Despite my experience of 1 previous white water rafting trip, I think I can vouch for it being one of the best in the world for sure. The guides were absolutely amazing, as if it wasn't good enough that the waves were a variety of difficulties and was so much fun itself, the guides actively encouraged competition between the boats (we had 2 boats of 4 because 3 of our originals had left towards the end of projects due to other commitments) that stretched to such an extent that eventually ended in people being pulled in off the other boat and others being taken captive etc - such good fun that ended in a well deserved beer sitting in the river talking about the previous 3 hours that had just flown by.
Our stay in Panama only lasted 5 days and it has definitely led me desperate to go back one day. Our time there was full of adventure and this may be one of the reasons I see it in such a good light, but as well as that there is plenty to see all over the country - namely Panama City and the Panama Canal (yet another lack of innovation with names!) But as well as this the country just seems to be in a perfect place of development, obviously there is a lot of American influence but this is mixed with the Caribbean culture that truly is like nothing else in the World.
Alas, our five days was over and it was time for yet another travel day back over the boarder to Costa Rica, or more specifically, Peurto Jiminez. This journey was made up of three public busses and a boat - probably the first time we had taken proper public transport of a classic American School bus. The journey, surprisingly, went without hindrance, mainly because our leader is fluent in Spanish and once again, I had no input which does tend to aid these kinds of situations! We did, however, manage to break a bit of a major law by accident on our journey... Our second bus dropped us at the border between Panama and Costa Rica, but it wasn't a border that any of us were used to. We were given rough directions as to where we were meant to be going and so we followed them through a tat market. When we came out the other side though we noticed that adverts were no longer selling things in dollars, but instead in Colones before seeing that suddenly, there were actually Costa Rican flags everywhere - we had managed to cross the border illegally! There was a simple fix of simply heading to passport control but it's definitely something I can say I've done!
By the time we arrived in Peurto Jiminez we were now 6 weeks into the trip and fatigue (not to mention money) were kicking in. We only had one full day in the very quiet but lovely little town located in a gulf and so we decided to go for a gentle kayak into a nearby river and mangroves where we were told we would see some lovely birds, maybe a turtle... And a crocodile. It took me about half an hour of being in this kayak before I realised that I wasn't actually sure I wanted to see a crocodile! Another 15 minutes later however we saw the tiniest baby crocodile and that was enough for me! The kayaking was very gentle and it was nice to play around in a kayak and see some lovely scenery.
We left Port Jiminez on Monday morning and we saw this as the start of a long journey home - for a variety of reasons we didn't get home until Midday Thursday - talk about a long journey!! We got another public bus, this time it was the 10 hour trip back into San Jose where our flight was due to be leaving on Tuesday morning. After a relatively rough journey (the first of which half was full of a consistent worry of vomiting) we arrived in the early afternoon and decided that we had all put off buying our tat for long enough - a spending spree occurred that I'm not proud of, but I'm not willing to say I regretted it either! The evening was one spent waiting 2 hours for food, being surprised by one of our camp directors who turned out to be in San Jose and presenting the Coscars (The Costa Rican Oscars - something a friend and I had planned for the last couple of weeks of the trip) which was a really nice way to spend the evening. Oh, amidst all the fun of buying tat we were criticising the city of San Jose for being so dusty and smoggy - it was genuinely a challenge to walk down the street without some kind of dust getting into our eyes it was horrible.... It was only later that evening that we found out that this was a result of a nearby volcano erupting four times that day... Our flight was in 16 hours - double oh.
We arrived to the airport expecting delays, we were there for about three hours before finding out that the flight had been cancelled which was followed by another couple of hours trying to find out what we were entitled to (nothing) and sort out what we were going to do for the next 22 hours before our next flight. We opted for the obvious - spend the left over group money on going to a lovely hotel where we all got our own double bed for the first time in 6 weeks... What was that about the travelling life?! Our last night take II was much more relaxed and consisted of getting a great nights sleep in a lovely lovely bed.
The following day saw yet more delays, the panic of knowing that we were going to miss our connection flight, the rebooking of our connecting flight, panicking that we may not even get the last flight of the day, a relatively nice plane journey and a run through Atlanta airport that resulted us FINALLY being on the right plane home - as I'm sat somewhere over the Atlantic Ocean I'm still not convinced we've left Costa Rica!
Despite the last couple of days of hecticness, there is no taking away from what has been, without a shadow of a doubt an unbelievable trip so I guess I better shout out all of the people that made it all possible and provided so much entertainment. Finally, a congratulations if you made it this far, it genuinely took about three hours to recall and create! Snaps X
